memeorandum: Democrats Fume in Caucus as Duckworth Denied Vote (Emma Dumain/Roll Call)

11:45 AM ET, November 19, 2014

Top Items:

Senate Defeats Bill on Keystone XL Pipeline in Narrow Vote — WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats, by a single vote, stopped legislation that would have approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, one of the most fractious and expensive battles of the Obama presidency.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, Bloomberg Politics, National Journal, Scared Monkeys, NOLA.com topics, Washington Post, The World's Greatest …, Wall Street Journal, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Liberal ‘hell no’ caucus rises — The defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline in the Senate marked a major show of muscle for next year's new hell-no caucus: liberals. — Liberal Senate Democrats united to block the controversial project, even though their imperiled Democratic colleague Mary Landrieu …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, US News, CBS DC and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Josh Kraushaar / National Journal:

Obama's Agenda Threatens to Divide the Democratic Party — Hillary Clinton's ability to win the White House in 2016 depends on the president moving to the middle, not playing to his base. — President Obama's biggest problem over the next two years may not be coming from recalcitrant Republicans …

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics, Washington Post, Fox News and New York Times

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Keystone XL: Mary Landrieu's final indignity

Discussion: National Journal, Don Surber, Associated Press, Hot Air, NOLA.com topics, The Hill and RedState

Lisa Lerer / Bloomberg Politics:
Louisiana's Landrieu Silent at Almost 70% of Energy Hearings

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Post and Reuters

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

Democrats to Obama: You broke the party, now fix it — Nancy Pelosi was reelected minority leader. So was Harry Reid. Getty — Enough, Donna Brazile told White House political director David Simas the day after the midterms. — Democrats are in worse shape than when President Barack Obama came …

Discussion: Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Taylor Marsh and The Week

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Following 2014 Drubbing, Democrats Fret Things Could Get Worse

Discussion: US News

Matt Sledge / The Huffington Post:

Libertarian Champion Rand Paul Helped Kill NSA Reform Bill — WASHINGTON — Rand Paul, a leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, helped kill a bill meant to rein in the National Security Agency. Huh? — The USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, ABC News, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and NPR

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Republican wall crushes NSA bill

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Huffington Post, The Dish, BuzzFeed and The Hill

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner: McConnell looks to create super PAC dedicated to GOP Senate

New York Times:
Bill to Restrict N.S.A. Data Collection Blocked in Vote by Senate Republicans

Discussion: Cato Institute, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Technocrat, The World's Greatest …, The Intercept, The PJ Tatler, National Journal, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post

BuzzFeed:

“God View:” Uber Investigates Its Top New York Executive For Privacy Violations — In the wake of a BuzzFeed News story, the transit company is looking into the official's tracking of a journalist's location. — BuzzFeed News — Uber said Tuesday that it is investigating its top …

Nairi / Uber Blog:
UBER'S DATA PRIVACY POLICY

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, Mashable, PandoDaily, VentureBeat and Gizmodo

Emma Dumain / Roll Call:

Democrats Fume in Caucus as Duckworth Denied Vote — House Democrats are continuing to criticize Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's refusal to allow Rep. Tammy Duckworth — a double amputee Iraq War veteran whose pregnancy has made her unable to travel — to vote by proxy in leadership elections this week.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and LifeNews.com

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Dem anger flares over pregnant lawmaker

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Daily Kos

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Ready for Hillary begins to wind down — Some Obama advisers have publicly questioned the utility for Clinton, who is still formulating a message for a likely candidacy, in having an apparatus bearing her name so early in the cycle. — Eventually, Ready for Hillary and another pro-Clinton entity …

Discussion: New York Times

Becket Adams / Washington Examiner:

Major media mostly giving Gruber ‘stupidity’ videos the silent treatment — (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) — OBAMACARE HEALTH CARE MEDIA JONATHAN GRUBER MEDIA DESK — Half a dozen videos have exploded online showing Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber calling the American people stupid …

Discussion: Hot Air, CBS DC, National Review and Fox News Insider

Sean Davis / The Federalist:
It's Time For Leftist Gruber Truthers To Give It A Rest

Discussion: RedState, Betsy's Page, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller and Reason

Aaron Sharockman / PolitiFact:
Jonathan Gruber mentions on TV: Fox News 779, MSNBC 79

Discussion: Mediaite, ThinkProgress and The Dish

David Wasserman / FiveThirtyEight:

Why House Republicans Did Even Better Than They Expected — When the 114th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, House Republicans will boast their largest majority since Herbert Hoover was president. If all leaders in the yet-to-be-called races hold their leads, Republicans will go from 234 seats to 247 …

Discussion: Political Wire and Bloomberg View

Daniel Newhauser / National Journal:

House Republicans Just Picked 21 Committee Chairs. 20 Are Men. — Roster of chairmen is almost entirely white men, with Candice Miller staying on atop House Administration panel. — House Republicans have selected white men to chair all but one of their standing committees next year.

Discussion: msnbc.com, OnPolitics and Political Wire

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

A Walker '16 boom: He looks great — on paper — Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisc. — The Republican nomination for the presidency in 2016 may be Scott Walker's to lose. If your response, as it might be, is “Scott Who?” then you're not paying attention yet. — I just spent a week among people who are …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Associated Press

Greg Bluestein / Political Insider blog:

Jason Carter on a potential comeback: 'I'm not ruling it out.' — If you expected Jason Carter to brood after this month's stinging election defeat, you'd be disappointed. — Two weeks after his loss to Gov. Nathan Deal, the Atlanta state senator talked of building upon the network …

Discussion: Political Wire and OnPolitics

The Hill:

White House prepares activists for Obama's immigration order — The White House held calls with activist groups on Tuesday to prepare them for President Obama's executive action on immigration, sources tell The Hill. — Administration officials didn't go into detail on what would be included …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid >>:
Senate Democrats In Letter To President Obama: After House GOP Failure To Act, We Fully Support …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and The Federalist

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

Ryan gets prized gavel on taxes — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the House GOP's lead budget guru, was selected as the next chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. — Ryan was long seen as the favorite to replace the current Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) …

Discussion: Hot Air

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Gruber's Obamacare payday highlights ulterior motives behind ‘do something’ cry — WHITE HOUSE OBAMACARE JONATHAN GRUBER — For all the cursing of congressional gridlock, one of the greatest sources of Washington's evils may be the bias in favor of doing something.